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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

It is an interesting set of responses. There are some demographic groups that would be more responsive to an interest in classical piano. Advertisers and marketing types know the ages, the zipcodes and other factors that might drive a higher level of interest.

Another factor is how talkative and friendly a person is. I tend to be a quiet person, but will occasionally open up conversations. Say it is 5% of all folks that have much interest in my hobby. If I talk to 20 people, one will be interested. For some folks, 20 might be a year's worth of talking to people, for another it might be two days worth.

Rarely do I get the zero interest response. However, it is common for the one question "are you taking lessons?" and then nothing more. Sometimes it is two questions, lessons and what kind of piano? More than two questions, usually means another musician or someone with a passion for music.

Another part of it is how much interest I might show in their hobby (say golf, or tennis, or ballroom dancing, none of which I participate in). If I am not interested in their stories, they tend not to be interested in mine.

A separate but related hobby of mine, is songwriting. There might be 5% of musicians that are active songwriters, so a fellow songwriter is a far scarcer find. That said, more folks might be interested in songwriting as a casual topic than classical piano.

I guess I spend most of my sharing time on this website as I have found few of my circle want to hear about my piano life. When I was shopping for my piano, and after I found it, I was dying to tell anyone who would listen, but found polite listening and realized I was the only one who wanted to hear about this.

I have posted on here about my struggle to get a piano, teaching myself to read music and play, and so on. Hopefully someone enjoyed reading these posts. I know my friends wouldn't have.

I am married to someone who dislikes piano music, classical and jazz music in general, and really doesn't care much whether she hears music for weeks at a time. Fortunately, she indulges my interest and never made me feel guilty as I collected about 6000 cds of classical and jazz music. She also encouraged me to buy my almost-new Mason-Hamlin BB grand piano this year for a price higher than we paid for our house.

As long as I shut the door when I play, she is fine with it all. I wish she loved the music, but I am satisfied that she loves me.

6000 cds! I'd have a problem with that.. I copied all my cds(500)to mp3(192 bit rate)I'm still reluctant to take them to the cd store and sell them..I'm glad I never started a movie dvd collection.. its getting out of hand...people can assess things about you by looking around yourliving room, I recently had my roof done,and the roofing contractor looked around my living room and asked if i was a professor(all my reference books) saw my piano and asked if he could try it (played claire de lune)and he cut me a break on the price of my roof...

Cebukid - maybe you just need a different work environment Join some of my clients Or other places I've worked. There must be one that would be more responsive to your interests, since the work environments, from the sample here, seem to be pretty evenly split. Get looking!

Cathy

Hey Cathy, either that, or join a band like you. I work mostly with engineers (all types), and generally, they don't have an appreciation or interest in the arts.

There are a few people on the job that will ask occasionally. One guy even invited me to a piano recital at his church.....those kids where AMAZING! It would be nice to have a few close friends who shared my love for piano, but that has not happened! My wife prefers that I play when she is not home....which isn't a problem for me (I can do without the criticism, questions, and interruptions.)

I'm not to keen on the idea of public performances, so none of this is an issue for me. My piano "hobby" is very much a personal thing that I don't mind keeping to myself.......unless someone really want to hear me play!

I have been reading your stories and thought I'd respond. I am in education but there are a number of colleagues I work with who are musicians. It's interesting really. My boss plays at least six instruments but has never been classically trained. Another colleague of mine has been classically trained in piano but plays a lot of covers and other similar gigs. The only problem with discussing music is that we can go on for a while so it's not that productive at work. I also forgot to mention that my bosses, boss is also a classically trained musician. So, in short, I can discuss my interests with those I work with. Much of my information is gained from reading the posts from here though

Hey Cathy, either that, or join a band like you. I work mostly with engineers (all types), and generally, they don't have an appreciation or interest in the arts.

Hi CebuKid, I'm an engineer myself, I work with a lot of them and I married one. A lot of them are interested in music, and play an instrument themselves (my husband plays saxophones, mainly tenor).Other friends of mine - not engineers - don't care about my piano passion.In general, in my experience, persons who play or have played care and like to share experiences, even if they play different kind of music (a colleague of mine plays guitar in a hard-rock band, I play only classical), others not (unless they really love you).

Hi CebuKid, I'm an engineer myself, I work with a lot of them and I married one. A lot of them are interested in music, and play an instrument themselves (my husband plays saxophones, mainly tenor).Other friends of mine - not engineers - don't care about my piano passion.

I would have to agree. All of the best Engineers have some background in the creative arts. I don't think I've ever met a good one one who didn't. In the days before computer science degrees were ubiquitous, we used to to filter technical resumes looking for musical background when looking for good candidates to train for computer engineering jobs. They always seemed to have the best prospects for success.

This has been a very interesting thread! My personal experience is that musical taste is so personal, that it is virtually impossible to find people in your real life that can share or even appreciate your passion. If you were singing Adele songs strumming acoustic guitar in your dorm room, you have a shot - but Classical and Jazz are just wildly unpopular in general.

The guy who finished our basement was a professional jazz guitarist and one of the original teachers at Berklee. He quit playing pretty much altogether because he just couldn't get anyone to listen. And he even had friends that he could get together with and play!

Interestingly, I've found that professional musicians are the absolute worst for appreciating amateur attempts at music. I guess it makes sense if you think about it as work for them. It would be like asking a Math teacher to correct your homework after a full day teaching. Not fun.

My take has been that through the magic of the internet, if you cast a wide enough net, you will find that handful of souls that are truly appreciative of what you are doing, and are in the same place that you are. It is a game of statistics. Of the billions of people on this earth, you can find the few that like your genre, style, sound, approach and dedication. The Pianoworld forums are awesome for this. Writing and posting to a blog is also great. I've found a few unexpected treasures this way from around the world.

I'll tell you one story... I posted a cover of "You Don't Know What Love Is" in 2011. My blog statistics told me that it was being downloaded 4-6 times a day for about four months in Bremen, Germany. I figured that it was one of those "bots" that will go around and automatically download stuff from the internet. I came to find out that it was a guy from University of Bremen who was going through a really bad breakup. The song struck him as providing just the right mood for his feelings, so he kept playing it!

Someone is out there for whom what you are creating is striking just the right chord....

Hi CebuKid, I'm an engineer myself, I work with a lot of them and I married one. A lot of them are interested in music, and play an instrument themselves (my husband plays saxophones, mainly tenor).Other friends of mine - not engineers - don't care about my piano passion.

I would have to agree. All of the best Engineers have some background in the creative arts. I don't think I've ever met a good one one who didn't. In the days before computer science degrees were ubiquitous, we used to to filter technical resumes looking for musical background when looking for good candidates to train for computer engineering jobs. They always seemed to have the best prospects for success.

This has been a very interesting thread! My personal experience is that musical taste is so personal, that it is virtually impossible to find people in your real life that can share or even appreciate your passion. If you were singing Adele songs strumming acoustic guitar in your dorm room, you have a shot - but Classical and Jazz are just wildly unpopular in general.

The guy who finished our basement was a professional jazz guitarist and one of the original teachers at Berklee. He quit playing pretty much altogether because he just couldn't get anyone to listen. And he even had friends that he could get together with and play!

Interestingly, I've found that professional musicians are the absolute worst for appreciating amateur attempts at music. I guess it makes sense if you think about it as work for them. It would be like asking a Math teacher to correct your homework after a full day teaching. Not fun.

My take has been that through the magic of the internet, if you cast a wide enough net, you will find that handful of souls that are truly appreciative of what you are doing, and are in the same place that you are. It is a game of statistics. Of the billions of people on this earth, you can find the few that like your genre, style, sound, approach and dedication. The Pianoworld forums are awesome for this. Writing and posting to a blog is also great. I've found a few unexpected treasures this way from around the world.

I'll tell you one story... I posted a cover of "You Don't Know What Love Is" in 2011. My blog statistics told me that it was being downloaded 4-6 times a day for about four months in Bremen, Germany. I figured that it was one of those "bots" that will go around and automatically download stuff from the internet. I came to find out that it was a guy from University of Bremen who was going through a really bad breakup. The song struck him as providing just the right mood for his feelings, so he kept playing it!

Someone is out there for whom what you are creating is striking just the right chord....

Interesting comments, guys. I work for a very small company (making for a small pool or sample size), and yes, I'm a career engineer too. 2 of our engineers are active musicians, actually (drummers). I'm the only pianist there.

The reason I generalized is that most of the engineers I've dealt with eschew the "non-technical" - they complained about college coursework that wasn't math, science, or engineering related. Most of their outside interests involve home improving, fixing things, working on their cars, etc... I like to differentiate myself from them, because I do all that stuff too, but also, use my creative/artistic side.

I do agree that the majority of them had some type of childhood musical background which is why I'm a firm believer in the "math-music" connection. I think musical background somehow simulates the part of the brain that decodes patterns, shape, etc, and I know lots of you here are from the sciences too.